Researchers analyze how infectious diseases spread at airports

A friend recently returned home from a trip to London with a most unwelcome souvenir: a nasty virus lasting nearly a week. She blamed a pint-size passenger sitting in front of her who, she claims, was coughing without covering his mouth. But was it actually his fault?

Findings released last week from MIT researchers show that certain U.S. airports may play a significant role in spreading infectious diseases.

The video above describes how researchers used variations in individuals' travel patterns, geographic locations of airports, disparity in interactions among airports and airport wait times to develop a model for predicting where and how fast a disease might spread. They hope the work will be a useful in creating new disease containment strategies.